NEW DELHI: The Sixth Economic Census released by Delhi government on Monday shows a worrisome employment scenario. It has now become evident that with no new jobs created in over a decade, joblessness is on the rise. A comparison of the data with the previous economic census report shows that the working class across urban and rural areas declined significantly by over 5 lakh. In the 2005 census the number was over 35.56 lakh. Even though the population grew significantly over the past decade, the number of jobs based on data from 2013 reduced to 30.19 lakh in both urban and rural categories.

The economic census report has been put together by Delhi’s directorate of economics and statistics in collaboration with Central Statistics Office.The fourth and fifth economic census registered a growth of 8.49% and 0.23% per annum, respectively, in employment numbers. However, the sixth census shows a considerable decrease of 1.89% in number of people engaged in different entrepreneurial activities.

Data on the number of people working in the urban setup was 20,12,026 in 1990. It shot up to 34,15,104 in 1998, but increased marginally to 34,86,324 in 2005. The data from 2013 reflects a significant decline in jobs by over five lakh to 29,92,171 in the urban scenario.

The number of people working in different rural activities reflects a more drastic decline since agriculture activities have reduced over the decades in Delhi with more such areas turning urban.

The report underlines the fact that 30.2 lakh people (27,610 in rural and 29.9 lakh in urban areas) were working in 8.75 lakh businesses in Delhi during 2013 with an average of 3.45 workers per establishment. Out of 30.2 lakh total employees, about 3.8 lakh (12.5%) were female workers and 26.4 lakh (87.5%) male.

The economic census has also dedicated a chapter to women entrepreneurs. It states that women own 8.05% of the total number of private establishments in the city, but female employees constitute only 8.39% of the total workforce in the non-agricultural sector. Out of the total 8,75,308 private economic establishments, 70,434 are managed by women entrepreneurs.

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